Newark Mayor Cory Booker has openly discussed his struggle with weight but he dodged the media after touting a discounted Weight Watchers program for city workers today.Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

Booker and David Kirchhoff, CEO of Weight Watchers, announced a new partnership that gives city employees a membership discount at a news conference today.

However after the announcement, Booker dodged media questions as he ran upstairs, back to his office. Several media outlets asked Newark's celebrity mayor to answer questions, to which Booker conferred with a staffer and said his schedule did not permit time.

A former tight end at Stanford, Booker often makes light of his own struggle to stay fit and trim.

"I was hanging out with those guys last night — Ben and Jerry," Booker joked at the event in the city hall rotunda, eliciting laughter from the standing room-only crowd.

On a more serious note, Booker said he hopes the Weight Watchers program will empower city workers to live healthier lives, creating a ripple effect in Newark where large parts of the urban population struggle with obesity, high cholesterol and other serious heath issues.